So, what was STARFAN and how did it come about? Here's my editorial from the
fanzine STARFAN #1 (1980):

The fanzine (and it is a fanzine) that you hold in your hands was
never intended to exist. It looks like a fan comic book and that also was
not intended. So what's going on?

Some months back it occurred to me that attempting a fannish strip
along the lines of Steve Gerber's HOWARD THE DUCK would be an interesting
idea. It was, so much so that before even finishing the first strip I'd
decided to do another. I was half way through the third before I began to
wonder where they were going to see print. Since a strip of this nature
really needs to appear in a regular-fanzine (at least three times a year),
and is drawn on A4 instead of the more popular quarto, I had problems.
The resolution of those problems is the fanzine you hold in your hands.
At best it's a compromise because although the four strips form a defin-
ite sequence each was planned and executed as a self contained unit and
should, ideally, be read with that in mind. If I'd realised that STARFAN
would ultimately appear in this format the structure of the material
within would have been appreciably different.

While HOWARD THE DUCK was a definite initial inspiration even a
cursory reading of STARFAN will show that it very soon grew away from
such beginnings. In effect I've tried to produce a satire on fandom,SF,
comics etc., that is both accessible to the casual fan reader and of
particular significance to contemporary British fannish fans. This is
why the strip's major supporting character bears a strong resemblance to
a certain British fan and why certain faces may appear familiar. For the
most part I've tried to keep the names of fans out preferring merely to
use their features to add another dimension to certain characters.

The editorial was dated November 1979 and refers to four chapters but, as
you'll see, the finished fanzine contained six with the final two dated
1980. Clearly, I had second thoughts and added in the Starcon sequence rather
than leave it for a theoretical second issue. However, before doing so I had
started work on a new STARFAN serial - this one with episodes two
pages long and sized for a quarto fanzine - titled 'The Phantom of the
Convention'. I think I intended this for my own regular fanzine EPSILON, but I
didn't to proceed with it for reasons I now no longer recall. Since
the two page 'Trufan and Junior' ran in later issues, I may have decided that
self-contained two-pagers were more suitable than a serial. Those two pages
of 'The Phantom of the Convention', dated 1979, are presented here for the
first time anywhere.

STARFAN's next manifestation was as a two-or-three panel newspaper style
strip in early issues of Dave Langford's ANSIBLE (and one issue of his TWLL DDU).
There were six in all, the final four starting a sequence that was supposed to
work its way chronologically through a whole day of a convention.

Also presented here for the first time are the pages that exist of the unfinished
STARFAN #2, complete with unerased pencils. Alas, after all this time I no
longer recall where I was heading with this when I left it in 1981/2 but I do
remember that the creature at the heart of the mysterious tower would turn out
to be my Welsh dragon figure, a benign character. He's drawn looking sinister on
the cover so as not to give the game away, but once you know it's him it's
easy to see.

STARFAN #2 was almost revived a few years later when US fan artist Dan Steffan
expressed an interest in collaborating with me and getting it finished. The idea
was I would send him scripted pencil layouts and he would do the finished art over
these. Dan even sent me a beautiful piece on 10 3/4" x 15 1/4" art board to
prod me into producing the pages but, alas, I never did. That same year, 1985,
I did a drawing of Starfan with Trufan & Junior for the 'Arty Fellers' portfolio
Dan assembled for the 1985 CORFLU.

STARFAN's next appearance was in 1990 when I repackaged the first two chapters of
STARFAN #1 as individual minicomics for distribution in an apa I was then a
member of. The idea was that every last bit of STARFAN material that existed would
see print as a minicomic, but it never got any further. The minicomic covers, along
with Dan's art and the piece I did for 'Arty Fellers' can be found under
'Miscellaneous'.

STARFAN's last hurrah (before this, of course) was at the 2001 British Eastercon
when STARFAN #1 was blown up, printed on large display boards, and hung on the walls
of the fanroom, which was run that year by Greg and Catherine Pickersgill.